UP Film Institute
FACULTY
The UPFI faculty consists of professionals both in the industry and the academe. Similar to the Institute’s lineage to well-rounded education, its respectable educators are also well-rounded individuals. Not only are the faculty members prolific in their fields of expertise, they also are highly acclaimed and recognized by local and international award-giving bodies.
Assistant Professor Giancarlo Abrahan
Giancarlo Abrahan is an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute and an interdisciplinary artist who works across film, theatre, and literature. He holds an MFA in Contemporary Theatre & Performance from The New School. Abrahan’s filmography includes: as director — May Dinadala (2013), Dagitab (2014), Paki (2017), and Sila-sila (2019); as co-writer — Transit (2013, dir. Hannah Espia Farbova), Islands (2013, dir. Whammy Alcazaren), I’m Drunk, I Love You (2017, dir. JP Habac), Whether the Weather Is Fine (2021, dir. Carlo Francisco Manatad), i grew an inch when my father died (2026, dir. P.R. Monencillo Patindol); as producer — Gusto Kita with All My Hypothalamus (2018, dir. Dwein Baltazar), Fisting; Never Tear Us Apart (2018, dir. Whammy Alcazaren), Hilom (2016, dir. P.R. Monencillo Patindol), and Abogbaybay (2024, dir. P.R. Monencillo Patindol). They have participated in the ASEAN Film Leaders Incubator, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Asian Film Academy, Berlinale Talents, Talents Tokyo, Full Circle Lab, Oberhausen Film Seminar, and the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop. He is also a member of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, and a founding member of the Filipino Screenwriters Guild (FSG). They have served as moderator of Dulaang Sibol and workshop director of Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA).
INTERESTS
screenwriting, creative writing, directing, performance, interdisciplinary practice & dramaturgy, queer studies, time studies, mimetic theory
COURSES TAUGHT
Film 12 (Sine Pinoy), Film 131 (Narrative), Film 135 (Acting), Film 151 (Basic Scriptwriting),
Film 152 (Advanced Scriptwriting), Film 158 (Directing)
Professor Emeritus Grace Alfonso, PhD
Associate Professor Adjani Arumpac
Adjani Guerrero Arumpac is an independent Filipina documentary filmmaker, media scholar, and educator. A recipient of the UK Government Chevening Scholarship, she earned her Master of Arts in Digital Media and Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her audiovisual works have been showcased in local and international festivals and biennales. Notable exhibition venues include the Gwangju Biennale and the Asia-Pacific Triennial, and film festivals such as the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, ChopShots Documentary Film Festival, Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, Jocelyne Saab’s Cultural Resistance International Film Festival, among others. Her scholarly contributions represent a synthesis of posthumanist theory and ethical media literacy. By merging her practice as a documentarist with her academic research, she frames media as a dynamic extension of human agency that actively negotiates the power structures of the present.
INTERESTS
documentary and non-fiction cinema, media studies and digital literacy
COURSES TAUGHT
Film 100 (Introduction to Film), Film 102 (History of Philippine Cinema), Film 132 (Documentary), Media 220 (Advanced Documentary Production), Media 281 (Alternative Film Practices), Media 299 (Historical and Critical Research Methods in Film)
Associate Professor Yason Banal
Yason Banal is an artist, teacher and curator working in visual art, moving images and contemporary thought and culture – engaging in forms, ideas, concerns and intersections among systems, mechanisms and nuances especially around crucial times. He obtained a BA in Film at the University of the Philippines, Diliman and an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has been invited and selected by various artist residencies such as Rijksakademie, AIT Tokyo, Braziers UK, Platform Bandung and CCA Singapore, as well as lectureships at London Metropolitan University and Tokyo University of Fine Arts. Yason has been selected and invited to exhibit his artworks and moving images in various contexts, projects, galleries, festivals and alternative spaces, as well as biennales and museums both locally and internationally, including Manila, Shanghai, Sydney, New York, London, Berlin and Venice. Some publications that have written about him or his work include the New Yorker, Artforum, Philippine Inquirer, Pananaw, Dazed and Confused, The Guardian, Art Asia Pacific Magazine, Art News and Art Review. As an invited exhibition curator and film programmer, he has worked on exhibitions and screenings for the Andy Warhol Museum, Osage Art Foundation, Tate Modern, Asia Pacific Triennial, ICA London and UPFI Film Center. Just recently Yason had a solo exhibition at the Drawing Room; was selected to present for MoMA, Documenta and Venice Biennale; produced a novella; organized the first in his series of Y Activities in various spaces; and was invited as jury member at the Singapore International Film Festival. He is currently Director of the University of the Philippines Film Institute (UPFI) where he is also associate professor and full-time faculty, and later this year will be pursuing his PhD studies.
COURSES TAUGHT
Professor Patrick Campos
Patrick F. Campos is a professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute. His work as a scholar, critic, programmer, and editor centers on Philippine and Southeast Asian cinema, with particular attention to the relations between politics and aesthetics, and to the changing questions of national and regional cinema. He earned his BA in Film and MA in Comparative Literature from the University of the Philippines Diliman, and his PhD from the University of Westminster. He is the author of The End of National Cinema, editor of Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image, and programmer of the Tingin Southeast Asian Film Festival. His work spans scholarship, criticism, editing, curation, festival programming, and jury service in the Philippines and abroad. He is a member of NETPAC and FIPRESCI, and an advocate of media literacy education in the Philippines.
INTERESTS
Philippine and Southeast Asian cinema; politics and aesthetics; national and regional cinema; film history; moving-image cultures.
COURSES TAUGHT
Film 10: General Education, Sining Sine; Film 12: General Education, Sine Pinoy; Film 100: Introduction to Cinema and Moving Images; Film 102: Philippine Cinema; Film 103: World Cinema; Film 106: Southeast Asian Cinemas; Film 106: Chinese Cinemas; Film 130: Film Genres; Film 171: Film Theory and Criticism; Film 175: Film and Literature; Film 196: Special Topic: The Cinema of Kidlat Tahimik; Film 196: Special Topic: Film Programming; Film 199: Research in Film; Film 201: Seminar in Film Studies; Film 270: Film Theory; Comm 130: Communication and Media Theory; Media 210: Media Theory; Global Studies 197: Contemporary Korean Society.
Sari Dalena is a Filipina independent filmmaker and Professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute. She holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Film Production from New York University. She has been the recipient of the Fulbright-Hayes scholarship, New York Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Fellowship, and the 13 Artists Award at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Dalena is one of the pioneers in Filipino Experimental Film and her filmography includes Asong Simbahan (1994), Mumunting Krus (1995) and experimental dance film White Funeral (1998) which received awards at the Gawad URIAN and Gawad CCP para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video. Her films have been screened in numerous local and international film festival, among her notable works as director include: post-9/11 immigrant film Rigodon (2006), Memories of a Forgotten War (2001), Ka Oryang (2011), Ishma (2012), Himala Ngayon (2012) The Guerrilla is a Poet (2013), Ang Kababaihan ng Malolos (2014), Dahling Nick (2015), History of the Underground (2017). Dalena’s latest film Cinemartyrs was awarded Best Direction, Best Musical Score and Special Jury Prize at the 21st Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.
Dalena participated in Annecy, Berlinale, Locarno, Oberhausen, Busan, BIFAN, Full Circle Project labs, screened and exhibited at the Gwangju Biennale, New York Asian American Int’l Film Festival, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Lopez Museum, Alliance Francaise and Anthology Film Archives. She was honored as one of the Film Luminary for Independent Cinema at the Sine Sandaan, Centennial of Philippine Cinema, Recipient of the 1st Glory Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, UP Diliman Centennial Faculty Grant and ONE UP Professorial Chair Grant for Outstanding Teaching and Creative Works and the UP Artist Award.
The UP Film Institute is currently holding a multi-site retrospective “Counter-Archives of a Film Guerrera: A Retrospective of Sari Dalena’s Cinema” that highlights over 30 years of her works in documentary, hybrid and experimental filmmaking.
COURSES TAUGHT
Film 100 (Introduction to Film), Film 10 (Sining Sine), Film 131 (Narrative Film), Film 132 (Documentary), Film 133 (Experimental), Film 156 (Production Design), Film 158 (Directing), Film 258 (Directing), Film 196 (Special Topics)
INTERESTS
Independent Filmmaking and Alternative Cinema
Assistant Professor Anne Marie De Guzman, MFA
“I speak about within peripheries, see infinitely.”
Anne Marie G. de Guzman majored in filmmaking and studied photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. She received her Master’s in Fine Arts degree, Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. She is devoted to the cinematic form of short films and of experimental film sensibilities. Her photographs are for the most part dedicated to the aesthetic outcomes of analog photography in black-and-white. She is at present experimenting on creating images using cinematic and photographic stills with textual overtones using digital Applications. She has presented drawing portfolios for Galleria Duemila, and exhibited at the Ayala Museum. She is faculty and past director of the University of the Philippines Film Institute,(UPFI).
INTERESTS
documentary and non-fiction cinema, media studies and digital literacy
COURSES TAUGHT
Seminar in Film Studies (F201), Film Theses (F200),Research in Film (F199), Experimental Film (F133), Narrative Film (F131) ,Advanced Photography (F112), Basic Photography (F110)
Assistant Professor Roehl Jamon
Roehl has been with UP Film Institute since 1998. He is currently Director for the College’s Office for Alumni Relations. He was former UP Diliman Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs, former Director of the UP Film Institute, and former director of the College of Mass Communications Office of Extension and External Relations (OEER).
He was the Director when Saksi: Unang Balita was first awarded Best News Program by the Catholic Mass-Media Awards in 1995 and succeeded to conceptualize and direct equally award-winning News and Public/Current Affairs Programs such as 24 Oras, Unang Hirit, Balitanghali, and Saksi (late night), on GMA TV7; Barangay Dos, and Simpleng Hiling on ABSCBN TV2; and, Dokumentado and Sapul! on TV5. In between teaching, research, administration, extension work, and watching movies, Prof. Jamon is a trainor at the Peace and Conflict Journalism Network or Pecojon, an international NGO providing enhancement training for journalists in Southeast Asia; and President of the Philippine Center for Disaster Relief and Risk Reduction or PhilRelief. He also currently teaches DRMAPS course at the UP Institute of Civil Engineering.
His expertise is on visualization (from concept to screen), with primary interests in classical hollywood narrative cinema studies.
COURSES TAUGHT
Basic & Advanced Film Production, Photography, Cinematography, Documentary Filmmaking; Conflict-Sensitive Journalism, Electronic Media Production, and Disaster Risk Reduction Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies.
Mary Anne de Castro Mallari teaches film/media theory and history and communication courses at UP Film Institute. She has published articles in Plaridel Journal of Communication, Media and Society, Humanities Diliman, Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image, and Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Performance. She is an active member of Society of Filipino Archivists for Film (SOFIA) and Southeast Asian Media Studies Association (SEAMSA). Anne was a fellow in various writing workshops, including Kritika La Salle National Workshop of Art and Cultural Criticism in 2022, and National University of Singapore Asian Graduate Student Fellowship in 2021. Her research interests include film, media and genre studies, regional cinema and Philippine literature.
COURSES TAUGHT
History of Philippine Cinema (Film 102), Film Theory and Criticism II (Film 172),
Advanced Film Theory (Film 270), Communication and Media Ethics (Comm 110), Media Theory (Media 210)
Assistant Professor Jael Mendoza
Jael Mendoza teaches at the Film Institute UP Diliman, where she has also completed her MA in Media Studies (Film). She has been published in Kritika Kultura, Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image, 3-ACT Cinema Magazine, and Writing Presently, an anthology of recent writing on contemporary art in the Philippines. Her works have been shown at 98B COLLABoratory, Ayala Museum, Project 20, Lost Frames, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Ngilngig Asian Fantastic Film Festival and Gawad CCP among others. Her research and moving-image works deal with low-fidelity images, memory, gothic, and rural surveillance. She is the co-curator of Nomina Nuda, a small, nonprofit and independent curatorial platform.
INTERESTS
cultural studies, memory studies, gothic studies, trauma studies, visual culture, film and literature, scriptwriting, moving-image and curatorial practices
COURSES TAUGHT
Film 100 (Introduction to Film), Film 10 (Sining Sine), Film 151 (Basic Scriptwriting), Film 106 (National and Transnational Cinemas [Palestinian Cinema])
Associate Professor Shirley Palileo, PhD
sbpalileo@up.edu.ph
A tenured Associate Professor of the University of the Philippines Film Institute, Dr. Shirley Palileo, is a film, communication and media studies scholar, and anthropologist specializing in culture and linguistics. Two of her publications, “K-House: Linguistic Synergy Among Online Filipino Communities”, SSDR, 2024; and “Cultural Technique-al Cues and Performative Acts on Online Filipino Communities Drawn from Korean Drama Series”, ALJEH 2023 … connects to her CSSP, UP Diliman PhD dissertation in Anthropology, titled “Kimchara and Samgyeophaws: The Online Filipino Community Residents’ Culture of Kosmopolitanism”. Her other life-long publication reflects interest in the scholarship of the cinematic language, iconology, performativity, cosmopolitanism,
and postcolonialism. Dr. Palileo has engaged in national and international research projects, trainings and conferences for national and international projects. One recent with UP Manila College of Medicine’s “Project: IGTS for the Management of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease with Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia; and Management of Pediatric Patients with Cerebral Palsy and with Mobility Limitations”.
A former Director for six consecutive years of the Office of Extension and External Relations of the UP CMC, she has spearheaded the national university’s highest recognition for individuals with exemplary practice of film and the media profession — the UP Gawad Plaridel. She fronted this in 2014-2020 for recipients Ms. Nora Cabaltera
Aunor, Mr. Ricky Lee, Ms. Francisca “Babes” Custodio, Ms. Tina Monson Palma, Ms. Maria Jessica A. Soho, and Mr. Bonifacio “Boni” A. Ilagan. Prior to this, she has been the Academic & Research Program Coordinator of the UPFI. Film and media literacy & education, film art & popular culture, film & the other sciences, film historical cultures, and visual anthropology, are some of Dr. Palileo’s attention to public service works. The university award-grants she received for her research and extension works include: the UP Diliman Centennial Professorial Chair; UP Fellowship; PhD Incentive Grant, Outright
Research Grant; Extension Grant, Source of Solutions Grant; the Ramon Cojuangco and the Hernando Abaya Professorial Chair Grants. Since 2016, she’s consistently been awarded the One UP Professorial Chair/FG for exemplary achievements in Teaching and Extension categories.
COURSES TAUGHT
Film 299 (Historical and Critical Research in Film), Film 297 (SPECIAL TOPICS Graduate Level: Cinematic Language & Cosmopolitanism, & the K-Drama), Film 280 (The Philippine Film Industry), Media 280 (SEMINAR CLASS: Peace and Conflict Sensitive Journalism), Media 250 (Political Economy in Media), Media 220 (Media Literacy) Film 199 (Research in Film), Film 198 (Film Internship), Film 196 (SPECIAL TOPICS Undergraduate Level: Cinematic Language & Cosmopolitanism, & the K- Drama), Film 159 (Producing), Film 135 (Acting for Film), Film 102 (History of Philippine Cinema, Film 100 (Introduction to Film), Film 12 (Sine Pinoy), Film 10 (Sining Sine), Comm 140 (Media and Society), Comm 130 (Communication and Media Theories), and Comm 100 (Introduction to Communication and Media)
Assistant Professor Robert Rownd
Rob Rownd is an American Actor, Archaeologist, and Film & Theater maker who has been based in the Philippines since 2003. He hold degrees from DePaul (BA Literature) and Northwestern Universities (MA Media History and MFA Filmmaking) in the Chicago area, and, from the University of the Philippines School of Archaeology (PBC in General Archaeology and is currently ABD for a PhD in Archaeology with an Emphasis on Remote Sensing, Submerged Landscapes and Maritime Cultures). His PhD research concerns using submerged Fish Weirs as climate and paleo-coast line proxies. His second research focus combines ethnographic Film and the material culture of migrants, OFWs and third culture people by staging and filming improvisation work derived from documentary interviews with Asian, European, and North American based members of the Filipino diaspora. As an actor he works in primarily Film and Television and occasionally on stage.
COURSES TAUGHT
Acting for Camera; Processes (a grad level creative producing course);Theory and Practice of Experimental Filmmaking and; Intro to Video Production (undergrad).
Professor Arminda Santiago, PhD
Professor Emeritus Nicanor Tiongson, PhD
Si Rolando B. Tolentino ay fakulti ng UP Film Institute, dating dekano ng University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication, at fellow at dating direktor ng Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing. Siya ay nakapagturo na rin sa Osaka University, National University of Singapore at University of California, Berkeley. Nagsusulat siya ng katha at sanaysay, editor ng mga antolohiya ng panitikan at kritikal na sanaysay. Ang kanyang interes sa pananaliksik ay panitikan, kulturang popular, pelikula at media ng Filipinas na pinagsasanib ang mga isyung nasyonal at trnasnasyonal. Siya ay naging puno ng National Committee on Cinema, Commissioner for the Subcommission of the Arts ng National Committee for Culture and the Arts, at board member ng Film Development Council of the Philippines.
Kasapi siya ng Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, Pinoy Media Center (PMC), Center for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG), Philippine Solidarity and Education Tours (PSET), at Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN).
SOCIALS (ACADEMICS)
SOCIALS (FILM CENTER)
SOCIALS (ARCHIVES)
Academics & Research
- College of Media & Communication Media Center, Ylanan St. UP Diliman, Quezon City
- (8)981 8500 (loc. 2670)
Theater & Extension
- UPFI Film Center, Magsaysay Ave. UP Diliman, Quezon City
- (8)981 8500 (loc. 4286)
Archives
- Ishmael Bernal Gallery, UPFI Film Center, Osmeña Ave. UP Diliman, Quezon City
- (8)981 8500 (loc. 4289)